KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Sunday announced that 35 more ministers will take oath before Governor RN Ravi at Lok Bhawan (formerly known as Raj Bhawan) at 11 am on Monday.
“The nationalist government of West Bengal elected by the people will have its full cabinet tomorrow,” Adhikari wrote in Bengali on X Day.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders said some prominent MLAs are likely to take oath, including Shankar Ghosh, who was the party’s chief whip when it was in the opposition, oncologists Sharadwat Mukherjee and Indranil Khan, former TMC minister Tapas Roy, former Rajya Sabha members Swapan Dasgupta and Rupa Ganguly and former Lok Sabha member Arjun Singh.
Adhikari and five ministers took oath at the parade ground in Kolkata on May 9 in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, chief ministers of all BJP-ruled states and prominent figures.
Adhikari is in charge of the Home and Hills Department, which was previously held by former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
“Banerjee headed several departments, including health. The BJP government will not follow this path. An effective doctor will head the health department so that it can be saved from the chaos of the TMC era,” a senior state BJP leader, requesting anonymity, said.
Agnimitra Paul, the first woman to be appointed to the Cabinet, heads the Department of Municipal Affairs and Urban Development, which was previously run by current Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim. She is also responsible for the Department of Women and Child Development and Social Welfare.
Former Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh is in charge of panchayat and rural development as well as animal husbandry departments.
Nisith Pramanik, former Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, is in charge of North Bengal’s development as well as sports and youth affairs.
Ashok Kirtania, a leader of the Dalit Matua community, is the food administration minister.
Tribal community leader Kshwaram Tudu heads the Backward Classes Welfare and Minority Affairs Department and the School Education Department which were previously under Mamata Banerjee.
In the two-phase elections, the BJP won 207 of the 294 seats in Bengal against the TMC’s 80 seats. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was among the 22 ministers who lost their seats.
